Three Hyderabad youth sentenced for attacking Gujarat Police team

A city court Tuesday convicted three people and sentenced them to two years' imprisonment while acquitting two others in a 10-year-old case relating to attack on a Gujarat Police team here.

Nampally criminal court judge sentenced Yaser Balequddin, Jaber and Shafique to imprisonment on charges of rioting and attacking policemen on duty. Yaser and Jaber are sons of cleric Moulana Naseeruddin, whose arrest by Gujarat Police had led to the incident on Oct 31, 2004.

The court granted bail to the three youth, who have already spent more than two years in jail.

The Gujarat Police came under attack by a mob in front of the office of the director general of police (DGP) here while arresting Moulana Naseeruddin in Gujarat's former home minister Haren Pandya's murder case.

A youth Mujahid Saleem was killed when a Gujarat Police officer opened fire. Those acquitted by the court Tuesday include Mujahid's younger brother Motasim Billah, who was last week named by Hyderabad police as an accused in a case in which two youth from Maharashtra were arrested here while trying to go to Afghanistan for jihad training.

Police claimed that Motasim Billah, son of cleric Moulana Abdul Aleem Islahi, motivated the youth from Maharashtra and promised them assistance. The youth says he is innocent.

On a complaint by Mujahid's family, Hyderabad police had booked a murder case against then Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of Gujarat Narendra Amin, who had opened the fire. However, there has been no progress in the case.

The suspended police officer is an accused in Soharbuddin and Ishrat Jahan staged shootout cases.